Saturday 6 August

1 Chronicles 22:2-23:32

Does the word “micro-manager” come to mind?  The Lord has clearly told David that he is not the one to build the temple but somehow David still finds a way of preparing all the material for the temple and of appointing all the various Levites to their roles.  If I was Solomon I might have felt a little miffed, or at least a little patronised.  But, then again, if I was Solomon I might also have felt slightly pleased with myself that God was going to establish the throne of my kingdom over Israel for ever.  I can’t help feeling that in all of this David has just slightly departed from the word of the Lord.  If the Lord says ‘don’t build the temple’ surely he means ‘don’t prepare the material for the temple’ either.  And as we saw a couple of days ago, the Lord did not say that Solomon would be the one whose kingdom would be established for ever - he said it would be a son of David - and we all know that it was David’s immediate son but his great-great-great-etc grandson Jesus who actually fulfilled this promise.  I’m not trying to have a go at this great man of God.  Rather, I feel I see in this episode so much of myself.  I’m so quick to think I know what the Lord is and isn’t saying and then to rush on ahead with my interpretation of the next appropriate action.  But often this is wrong.  Often my interpretations include me over-stepping the boundaries that the Lord has set for me and anointing someone else with something that the Lord just has not got for them.  “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands” is what Paul said to Timothy and I think there is great wisdom in that for me in more than just the appointment of leaders.  Generally learning to be still, to wait, to check my thoughts and mull over what the Lord may be saying is something that will do me well, and will avoid a lot of additional difficulties.

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

“We have the mind of Christ” - and it is a good job too because without it we wouldn’t have the foggiest of what Paul is talking about here.  Even with the mind of Christ this passage is slightly baffling.  I think Paul is basically expanding upon the argument he made yesterday - that we are not wise or impressive people but rely wholly on the wisdom and the power of God.  He expands that by saying that while we are unimpressive in human form we don’t just lie flaccid on the rock of God, gibbering like imbeciles and acting like the intellectually inept.  Rather, as we stand on the rock of God we receive from God deep insight, penetrative thought and startling spiritual judgement.  God gifts to us, weak and foolish as we are, a treasury of knowledge and truth.  We can, as it were, think about the world like Jesus does.  This is a pretty momentous statement.  This is an incredibly motivating promise.  We may not be very good at philosophy.  We may not be very good at answering difficult questions.  We may not be hip or on the crest of the cultural wave.  But we do have God’s secret wisdom.  We have understood the thing that has destined us for glory.  We have the mind of Christ.  And it is a glorious, exhilarating journey to explore it, to understand it and to glory in it.  We stand on the rock of God.  And the rock of God is changing who we are.

Psalm 91:9-16

The devil’s favourite psalm.